“Amarcord” (1973)

Amarcord

Grade: A+

Everyone loves a good nostalgic film, and there’s simply no film more nostalgic than Federico Fellini’s Amarcord (loose English translation: ‘I Remember’), an impassioned and lovingly exaggerated ode to the charming Italian coastal town of the director’s youth, circa late-1930s, just as Mussolini-era fascism was fully setting in.

Directing:

After five-and-a-half films of increasingly surreal decadence (I Clowns being the half), Fellini returns to his roots, tempering some of his more experimental tendencies yet losing none of his poignant dreamlike intimacy or ambition, carefully composing an accessible art-house fantasy that exudes warmth, wisdom and wistfulness in every colorful frame.

Acting:

Fellini’s familiar tropes are all on display, and the ensemble cast includes several actors from his previous films (notably Magali Noël as Gradisca, the village beauty queen), perfectly chosen for the one-note caricatures they’re all required to play, with impeccable comedic chemistry that makes the entire town feel lived-in.

Writing:

As far as plotless films go, Amarcord — which tells about a year in the life of a small town through a series of loosely related vignettes, interwoven with dreams, fantasies and various points of view — is pop surrealism at its finest and most coherent. While not necessarily a traditional “story,” the film hits on a deeper symbolic level: funny, profound, nostalgic, universal.

Music:

Nino Rota deserves to be ranked as one of the greatest film composers of all time, and his score for Amarcord — a brilliant combination of swing, classical and Italian folk — is his finest ever collaboration with Fellini, built around a simple melody that is playful, evocative and filled with deep longing.

Ending (SPOILERS):

Amarcord’s full circle ending is bittersweet in the best way, foreshadowing the harsh fascist future that the town and its characters will inevitably endure, but also sparing us the sight of our beloved misfits having to live through it.

Encased here in selective memory, the good old days are forever preserved, though life changes faster than you can even realize (and the future is something us viewers would rather not think about). Joyful, thought-provoking and subtly tragic.

“Tell me, who’s the father of this piece of shit?” — Aurelio (Titta’s father)

Why Amarcord gets an A+

Fellini’s third-best film, after 8 ½ (1963) and La Dolce Vita (1960). A nostalgic coming-of-age masterpiece on par with Cuarón’s Y tu mamá también (2001). One of the best films of the 1970s.

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